


The Marks of Where I Belong

by MaddeningNoise



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Boyfriends, Fluff, Kisses, M/M, Tattoos, everyone has them, everyone is born with them, except carlos, tattoos mean something in night vale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-20 05:56:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5993974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddeningNoise/pseuds/MaddeningNoise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone in Night vale is born with tattoos which symbolize the role they are meant to have in the little town of Night vale. Cecil's denote the radio host, Dana's say mayor, John Peter's name him the farmer. If you were to ask Cecil, Steve's say local nuisance. Carlos stands out as an outsider because he doesn't have any, but that's about to change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Marks of Where I Belong

Everyone in Night vale is born with tattoos which symbolize the role they are meant to have in the little town of Night vale. Cecil's denote the radio host, Dana's say mayor, John Peter's name him the farmer. If you were to ask Cecil, Steve's say local nuisance. Carlos had spent many a late night with Cecil, tracing the tattoos which cascaded down his arm and chest and back, pressing a kiss to one every so often as they squirmed and glided around on Cecil's skin.

Not all of them were night vale glyphs, Cecil had explained. Some had been added through the years, such as the tentacles that covered his right arm. But the crescent moon eye that adorned Cecil's forehead and blinked lazily every so often, the moon shaped pupil following the phases of the moon and moving from left to right, was what had declared him radio host. Every night vale radio host had had one. Someday, a child would be born with one, and that child would make it through the intern ship program and eventually take Cecil's place. But no time soon, Cecil had reassured both Carlos and himself. For now, he would be the voice of night vale with no end in sight.

Cecil had been born with other glyphs too. One which had predicted his time as an intern, another which had predicted Carlos, directly over his heart.. A small one which had been left over from the fight for night vale against strex corp synergists inc, black as if burned painfully onto his skin, unlike the rest that glowed a barely noticeable purple.

Carlos had fallen asleep the night before this particular day, body bare of any ink and nestled loosely in Cecil's arms, with no sense of the possibility that he would no longer stand out in a town of tattooed people after that night. He had been woken by a scream, which he first assumed was the sunrise, before realizing that it was actually his boyfriend, who was squealing in delight and shaking at his arm.

"Carlos, wake up this is wonderful, oh, Carlos!"

Carlos had sat up very blearily and shielded his eyes from the sun light bursting through the windows, to find a tiny DNA helix spiraling up his arm, twisting and curling and a slightly glowing purple. Another purple tattoo of the atom symbol, with little electron's circling their center, sat on his bicep. He was so transfixed by it that he at first didn't notice Cecil tracing the little symbol above Carlos's heart.

"What's this one, Carlos?" Cecil asked, tracing the lines connecting little element symbols.

Carlos tore his eyes away from it to kiss Cecil briefly on the lips. When the pair broke apart, he looked back down at the new tattoo and said.

"It's the chemical structures for oxycontin and dopamine..." He trailed off as Cecil's eyebrows furrowed. He paused before simplifying it. 

It's the chemical equation for Love, Cecil."

Cecil practically melted before him, pressing a sweet kiss to his lips. 

"Do you know what this means, Carlos?" Cecil asked later, lying with his arm on Carlos's chest, still tracing the tattoo over his heart.

"Hm?" Carlos asked, a small smile on his lips as he stared at his boyfriend.

"These are the marks of where you belong, if you want them to be." Cecil said happily. "Night Vale is welcoming you home."


End file.
